GOLD COAST, Australia – Ross Pearson’s biggest surprise as a coach on “The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes” was how emotionally involved he got in his team members’ futures.

The bond was mirrored by his Team. U.K. finalist Brad Scott’s plans to join him in San Diego after the reality show’s finale at Friday’s UFC on FX 6 event.

Before, he thought of the show as a mere stopover on the way to a fight rival coach George Sotiropoulos, whom he long expected to fight.

“The whole goal for me was to win the show and beat George,” Pearson told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “What happened in the show, that wasn’t my main focus. To fight George, that’s all I wanted.”

But the end of filming came with another unexpected, and frankly welcome, benefit: He wanted that a whole lot more too.

“Initially, it wasn’t like I had anything against him,” said Pearson, who returns to lightweight to meet Sotiropoulos in the headliner of “UFC on FX 6: Sotiropoulos vs. Pearson.”

The event takes place Saturday at Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Gold Coast, Australia, but it airs on Friday night in the U.S. due to the time difference. (FX carries the main card following prelims on FUEL TV and Facebook.)

“I’ve watched his fights,” Pearson said. “He’s a tough guy, a good name. He went on a winning streak, and he was a good opponent to get me back in the mix.

“The more we spent time with each other, the more we were in competition, the more the differences between us stood out. We were never going to be friends. We were never going to get along. We’re going to fight on Saturday, and we’re not going to be friends afterward.”

Pearson (13-6 MMA, 5-3 UFC), 28, coached a squad of U.K.-based lightweights and welterweights with the 35-year-old Sotiropoulos (14-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) leading an Australia-based team on the long-running reality show’s second international edition. By the time the finals of the reality-show tournament had been set, the score was 7 U.K., 3 Australia in head-to-head matchups.

Pearson thought the country vs. country promotional angle was overblown, but he said Sotiropoulos played it up to please Australians watching the program, which aired on FX Australia and in the U.S. on FX.

The problem, according to him, is that Sotiropoulos is the wrong person to carry the flag for his countrymen. When the two walk to the cage, he expects he won’t be booed nearly as much as the average out-of-towner.

“I have a lot of Australian friends, my girlfriend is Australian, and there’s a lot of people from Australia who support me,” Pearson said. “I just think George is a bad representative of Australia. I’ve never met anyone in the world like George for that matter.

“Australia, the people here, are mega-friendly. Mega-cool, chilled and have fun. George is the complete opposite of that.”

Pearson said Sotiropoulos’ presence on the set in Sydney brought a negative energy that permeated the air. Its effect could most clearly be seen during one particular fight announcement when Sotiropoulos invited members of Pearson’s team to defect. Pearson told cameras he wanted to fight the Aussie right there.

But even off-set, Pearson has heard reports of Sotiropoulos’ bad attitude.

“Fans stop with me and we have a talk and we have fun,” he said. “And George just isn’t approachable. Fans don’t really want to go up and speak to him because he’s walking around with this negative aura, or he’s mean-mugging.

“I’m not just saying this because this is how I see it. It’s what people are telling me. This is my eighth fight in the UFC. I’ve never trash-talked nobody, once. I’ve done all by talking in the cage. I’m not making stuff up to hype a fight. What I said is the truth.”

This weekend, Pearson gets to do two things he’s waited to do for several months: Cheer on his fellow Brits, and teach Sotiropoulos a lesson.

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